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'TikTok Refugees' are learning Mandarin Chinese on Duolingo for RedNote

Duolingo has seen a "216 percent growth in new Chinese (Mandarin) learners in the US compared to this time last year."

Instead of making do with Instagram Reels, people looked for a closer alternative and found Chinese social media app " RedNote" or Xiaohongshu, which translates to "little red book." As TechCrunch notes, the graph Duolingo posted clearly shows a big uptick in new learners at the same time RedNote shot up in popularity. In one video, someone wearing a mask of the app's green owl mascot is teaching Mandarin Chinese for beginners, starting with "Welcome, TikTok refugees."

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